With the flurry of programming announcements from NBC this week at the Television Critics Association (TCA) conference in Los Angeles touting mostly new dramatic, comedic and reality series, perhaps the most important was revealing plans for the highest rated prime time show in all of television, Sunday Night Football and using the powerful platform of Super Bowl XLVI to promote its new shows.
While there had been much consternation that the NFL strike may force NBC into alternate programming, National Football League owners and players recently agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement ending the 136-day old lockout, the longest labor stoppage in league history and thus saved NBC from having to venture into substituting its lucrative football programming for an untested alternative.
The schedule includes matchups with the last two Super Bowl winners as well as a new weekly show called NFL Turning Point, an insider point of view program. Field reporter Michele Tafoya joins the announcing team of Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth.
Sports is a key component of the network’s overall programming. In addition to a multi-billion broadcast deal with the NFL, a long-running new deal to air National Hockey League games, the network also recently secured US rights to the Winter and Summer Olympics through the end of the decade. That package at $4.38 billion, made it the most expensive television rights deal in Olympic history.
As part of a new strategy to bring all four tiers of its assets (broadcast network, two national cable networks, 11 regional sports networks and digital) into a consistent framework of branding, Mark Lazarus, Chairman, NBC Sports Group announced that VERSUS will be re-named the NBC Sports Network.
Lazarus added that The NBC Sports Network will serve as a 24/7 cable platform for NBC Sports’ ‘rich heritage of unmatched storytelling, best-in-class production and broad promotional power.’
“This effort is a major step towards a complete strategic alignment of all our platforms and businesses,” said Lazarus. “This is more than just a name change for VERSUS. It’s a complete repositioning of the brand to provide value for marketers, consumers as well as all our affiliates and distributors. We want anyone who comes into contact with any of our assets to immediately connect with the NBC Sports brand promise.”
Mark Lazarus, Chairman, NBC Sports Group
A similar approach applies to NBC’s ownership of the golf channel which will be re-branded as “Golf Channel on NBC”.
In an example of using sports to cross-promote other shows, “The Voice”, a vocal competition series modeled after Holland’s top-rated talent discovery show, will utilize the power of NBC’s sports programming to launch its second season.
Robert Greenblatt, Chairman, NBC Entertainment revealed, “The Super Bowl represents the biggest television audience of the year and we think that the return of “The Voice’ is deserving of that prominent showcase.”
The show should benefit from Super Sunday promos and will air Monday nights.
